Passing the baton – A succession planning guide
How do you hand on a business you’ve spent years nurturing? This is a challenge facing many business owners as they eventually accept that they cannot go on forever. This month I’ve teamed up with Peter Jenner, from William Battle Ltd, who specialises in business succession to compare his process-focused approach with my psychological perspective. Peter has a model which aims to plot a course for successful succession, which he envisages as concentric circles radiating out like ripples from the centre, though obviously there’s overlap between them. Aspirations Peter says: Everything starts with aspirations – yours and those of your likely ...
Business is business – Six pitfalls of family business leadership
First and foremost, family businesses are businesses. Like all organisations they require good leadership. In this article, I'd like to highlight some of the common pitfalls of family business leadership. But first, let's recap what leadership involves. In a previous article, I talked about what leaders do based on a leadership model called the Primary Colours® Model. The model identifies the tasks of leadership, which fall into three domains - strategic, interpersonal and operational. Leaders need to work out where they are going, get all the relevant people aligned around that strategy and create some plans and processes to make it happen. ...
Life in the fish tank – Where are you in this picture?
Do you advise businesses or other organisations for a living? Maybe you're a lawyer or an accountant, a management consultant or a non-exec director. Then this blog is for you. I want you to imagine an organisation as a fish tank. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a very small tank with just a few fish in it or a huge aquarium with multitudes of sea creatures. When you first look at it, the fish's behaviour may seem random but then patterns start to emerge. Maybe you find yourself studying the biggest fish and the way others interact with it. Or ...
Maybe it’s personal – Real and imagined family dynamics at work
Is there someone at work who really drives you nuts? Not just the usual workplace niggles but someone who really gets under your skin? Someone with whom it feels personal? Well maybe it is. Perhaps it all started with your family. That person may remind you of some you grew up with and you just haven’t noticed. Many workplaces take on the characteristics of a family – the stern, demanding father, the clucky mother hen, who looks after her brood but takes no nonsense from anyone, the squabbling siblings, the ‘baby’ of the family who gets away with murder and ...
Passing the baton – A succession planning guide
How do you hand on a business you’ve spent years nurturing? This is a challenge facing many business owners as they eventually accept that they cannot go on forever. This month I’ve teamed up with Peter Jenner, from William Battle Ltd, who specialises in business succession to compare his process-focused approach with my psychological perspective. Peter has a model which aims to plot a course for successful succession, which he envisages as concentric circles radiating out like ripples from the centre, though obviously there’s overlap between them. Aspirations Peter says: Everything starts with aspirations – yours and those of your likely ...
Business is business – Six pitfalls of family business leadership
First and foremost, family businesses are businesses. Like all organisations they require good leadership. In this article, I'd like to highlight some of the common pitfalls of family business leadership. But first, let's recap what leadership involves. In a previous article, I talked about what leaders do based on a leadership model called the Primary Colours® Model. The model identifies the tasks of leadership, which fall into three domains - strategic, interpersonal and operational. Leaders need to work out where they are going, get all the relevant people aligned around that strategy and create some plans and processes to make it happen. ...
Life in the fish tank – Where are you in this picture?
Do you advise businesses or other organisations for a living? Maybe you're a lawyer or an accountant, a management consultant or a non-exec director. Then this blog is for you. I want you to imagine an organisation as a fish tank. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a very small tank with just a few fish in it or a huge aquarium with multitudes of sea creatures. When you first look at it, the fish's behaviour may seem random but then patterns start to emerge. Maybe you find yourself studying the biggest fish and the way others interact with it. Or ...
Maybe it’s personal – Real and imagined family dynamics at work
Is there someone at work who really drives you nuts? Not just the usual workplace niggles but someone who really gets under your skin? Someone with whom it feels personal? Well maybe it is. Perhaps it all started with your family. That person may remind you of some you grew up with and you just haven’t noticed. Many workplaces take on the characteristics of a family – the stern, demanding father, the clucky mother hen, who looks after her brood but takes no nonsense from anyone, the squabbling siblings, the ‘baby’ of the family who gets away with murder and ...
